It may be desirable to provide disposable cutlery, such as multiple utensils, for example, spoons, forks, knives, and sporks, in a configuration where the utensils are secured in groups of more than one utensil. Such a configuration may serve to save space in the packaging and storing of multiple utensils. Additionally, such a configuration may enhance the efficiency of loading a utensil dispenser. In particular, when providing utensils to patrons via a utensil dispenser, the provider may need to load the single utensils one-at-a-time into the utensil dispenser, a process that may be tedious and inefficient. Further, loading the utensils in such a manner may not result in reliable one-at-a-time dispensing, for example, if the utensils are not loaded properly.
It may also be desirable to provide secured utensils that do not produce excess waste when used in conjunction with a dispenser. For example, multiple utensils may be secured to each other via a band, wrapper, or other securing device, or they may be provided in a cartridge containing a plurality of like utensils. However, after the band, wrapper, or other securing device is removed from the utensils, such securing device or cartridge will usually be discarded as waste.
It may be desirable to provide utensils that are not prone to flipping or otherwise changing from a desired orientation during either a process of being loaded into a dispenser or a process of being dispensed from a dispenser. For example, during dispensing of a stack of utensils, utensils may have a tendency to flip or rotate as the stack slides within the dispenser, which may lead to jamming the dispenser. This may result in compromising the utility of the dispenser. Additionally, it may be desirable to provide utensils that are capable of being successfully dispensed from a dispenser one-at-a-time.
It may also be desirable to provide a group of secured utensils that can be divided into smaller groups of secured utensils. In particular, some types of banded utensils or cartridges of utensils may not be able to be loaded into an empty dispenser in smaller groups of secured utensils. This drawback may cause problems when, for example, only a few utensils remain in a dispenser and it is anticipated that a large number of utensils will be dispensed in the near future. In such a situation, someone responsible for restocking the dispenser must either wait for the utensils to be dispensed and risk having a delay between the time at which the dispenser is emptied and when it is reloaded with new utensils, or load a portion of a group of secured utensils and discard or store the remaining loose utensils.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a system and method for addressing one or more of the issues discussed above.